Lightbringer

by Frankie Robertson

  Was Cassie right? He’d hated himself for not being there in Ford’s Theater, for shirking his duty. Cassie saw it differently. He’d loved Judith. He’d have hated himself if he’d left her to die alone. His being with her had brought her peace, and she’d embarked on her journey into the unknown with an easy heart. Perhaps that duty had been the greater one. There had been other security for Lincoln. But only he could have stayed with Judith that night.

  Michael would say he shouldn’t have gotten so involved. A week ago he would have said the same thing. But he couldn’t have chosen differently—then—or now.

  What’s the matter with me? How could this mortal woman change everything? Change him? Only one thing was sure: he wouldn’t let Aelziroth get to her.

  Cassie jerked awake. Had she heard something? She listened, concentrating, holding her breath. All she could hear was the faint sound of the TV from the other room. Even Edgar was quiet.

  How long had she been asleep? She sat up and rolled her stiff neck, blinking in the dark.

  Nothing changed. The minutes crept by. Cassie stood up and stretched her muscles. The shotgun clanged against the shower curtain rod, echoing in the small tiled room.

  “Shit!” Cassie’s heart jumped sideways in her chest, and she froze, clutching the gun tightly, aiming it at the door.

  But Aelziroth didn’t come rushing in, and Cassie slowly relaxed. She sat down again, leaning back against the pillow. What if he doesn’t show? What if my vision is wrong? What if it’s not tonight that he’s coming, but tomorrow? Or the next night? Or never?

  Jared flexed his fingers on the rifle. The inky shadows had shortened as the moon reached its zenith and now lengthened again. Soon it would seem strange for the lights and TV to be on. Perhaps Aelziroth was waiting until he thought they’d gone to sleep. He should have thought of this. Put the lights and TV on a timer. He’d have Cassie turn them off.

  He pulled out his cell and speed-dialed Cassie’s number.

  Cassie’s phone rang, echoing off the porcelain tile. She jumped even though the ring tone told her it was Linda.

  She flipped it open. “Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine. Look, I’m sorry I—”

  “I can’t talk right now,” Cassie whispered, then hung up and switched the cell to vibrate. She hated being so abrupt.

  Cassie started to text Linda, to reassure her friend, but Edgar jumped out of the tub and started yowling, a mournful sound, playing with the echoes like he did at home. “Edgar, come here, baby,” she whispered. “Come here.” Edgar quieted, but didn’t come to her. He just kept staring at the door.

  Suddenly Edgar screamed angrily, like he was defending his turf. He hissed and arched his back, his tail tripling in size. The hair on the back of Cassie’s neck stood up.

  Jared swore. The reception up here was so spotty. He’d gone directly to Cassie’s voice mail.

  Gliding like quicksilver, a man-sized shadow shifted through the moonlight toward the cabin, carrying a gun. Jared quietly shut his phone and lifted his rifle.

  Aelziroth.

  The man lifted his arm and threw something at the window. It bounced off the hardware cloth and landed in the yard. Jared shut his eyes just in time to keep the flash from destroying his night vision. The concussion buffeted the quiet, but in the open air and from thirty yards away the bang didn’t overwhelm him.

  Jared squeezed the trigger twice, aiming for the center of Aelziroth’s back. The Apostate staggered, then fell on the porch steps. Exactly the result Jared wanted. But it didn’t feel right.

  That was too easy.

  Jared hesitated for a second. Was this a ruse, designed to draw him out and give away his position? The body on the steps didn’t twitch. Jared ran forward, keeping to the shadows as much as possible, his rifle ready.

  As soon as he touched the man, Jared knew it wasn’t Aelziroth. “Shit!” The man was a pawn, controlled by the demon. I should have expected this. Horror squeezed his heart. I just shot an innocent man.

  The sound of an explosion followed by gunfire jolted Cassie’s pulse. She lifted the shotgun with shaking hands.

  A moment later a sound of wood and glass smashing came from the kitchen, followed by a shout of pain. Edgar screamed and hissed. Cold jagged fear raced down Cassie’s spine. The door to the bathroom crashed open. Aelziroth stood there, clothed in Dave’s body. He looked terrible, as if he’d been on a three-day binge. He had a patch over one eye, but the other was cold and sharp.

  Aelziroth stepped forward, and Cassie fired both barrels.

  Rifle at the ready, Jared rushed through the door and into the small house.

  Aelziroth had been thrown against the wall of the hallway, facing the open door to the bath. Buckshot pocked his face and the armored vest he wore. He turned toward Jared with lightning speed and raised his weapon.

  Jared fired and kept firing as fast as his finger could pull the trigger. The bullets’ impact threw Aelziroth back against the doorframe, but the Apostate still released a quick burst from his weapon. Then he disappeared from view, inside the bathroom. With Cassie.

  Jared staggered. He was hit, but he didn’t feel it yet.

  “No!” Cassie screamed.

  Fear clenched Jared’s heart with a cold fist, but somehow he kept moving. He sprang forward, pausing with his back against the wall beside the door. He ducked his head around to take a quick peek. A grenade landed at his feet.

  The world exploded in light and sound.

  Cassie winced at the concussive flash, but most of it was blocked by Aelziroth coming through the door. He crossed the room with two inhumanly swift strides. The stink of his rancid sweat mingled with the smell of gunpowder.

  Cassie swung the shotgun like a club. It connected with his shoulder, but he didn’t seem to feel it. Aelziroth let his automatic weapon drop to hang from its strap. He took the shotgun from her effortlessly and tossed it aside.

  Dim light filtered in from the living room, but she could see he was wounded. Blood coated the right side of his face, flowing over the patch there. Even more blood spurted from wounds in his left shoulder and leg. He was badly hurt. She had a chance.

  Cassie launched herself at him, reaching for his good eye. Aelziroth caught her, pinning her arms to her sides and lifting her with unnatural strength. She didn’t feel the same tingle as when touching Jared and Gideon. Instead his touch made her flesh crawl.

  Cassie shouted and struggled, but Aelziroth only smiled.

  “Ah! You are Progeny. I thought as much.” He sniffed like a wolf scenting prey. “And I smell my friend Jaradiel on you. Good for him. Now it’s my turn. I will take you in a different way, but much more completely. That will satisfy the spell of the one who called me, and my own purposes as well. You will be destroyed, and I will have a body that will last much longer than this one has.”

  “No!” Terrified, Cassie tried to wrench out of his grip, but a numbness spread out from where Aelziroth clasped her arms. She couldn’t move. Her vision narrowed until all she could see was Dave’s one good eye, glittering with evil purpose.

  “No!” she cried again, but the word came out as a whimper.

  She no longer controlled her body. The world seemed distant, as if she were riding in the back of a long bus.

  The hands gripping her arms released her and she fell six inches back into the tub. In front of her, Dave’s gray eye widened, as if surprised, then he collapsed to the floor.

  Cassie heard Aelziroth laugh, and the sound came from her own throat.

  CHAPTER 15

  A BLAST OF light and sound hit Jared’s heightened senses like a body blow. He staggered blindly back down the short hall to the living room, the image of the hallway before the explosion flash frozen like a still photo negative on his retinas. The ringing in his ears blocked all other sound.

  He stumbled over something and fell to his knees. The floor vibrated with someone’s footsteps coming closer. They paused beside him. Blinking furiously, Jared li
fted the .30-06, but he was afraid to fire. “Cassie? Cassie!”

  But if she answered, he couldn’t hear.

  Cassie watched her body step out of the tub and over Dave’s form where it lay crumpled on the tile. Her foot slipped a little in the slick of blood on the floor, but she didn’t feel the quick jerk of vertigo as her body righted itself. Instead, her legs carried her out of the small room and down the hall. Jared was on his knees next to the ottoman, clutching his rifle, well outside of where he’d drawn the symbol that was supposed to trap the demon. Tears ran down his face from his watering eyes. His head was cocked as if he was listening for something.

  “Cassie!” Jared’s voice cracked.

  Jared! She tried to speak, but no sound came from her throat. She wanted to go to him, to put her arms around him, but her body no longer answered to her will.

  Cassie felt Aelziroth’s pleasure at the sight. Then, faster than she could see, Jared’s arm swept out behind her legs. With lightning speed, her body leapt out of reach. She’d never moved that fast in her life, but it had been effortless under the Apostate’s control. Jared lifted his rifle, but Aelziroth used her foot to kick it out of his hands. Then the demon pointed the muzzle of his gun at Jared’s head.

  *No!* Cassie wailed, flailing inside her invisible cage. *No! Don’t!*

  Aelziroth laughed. *Is he precious to you? Would you be sad if I shot him? Ended his existence?*

  *Please, don’t,* Cassie pleaded, her terror focused on this one thing. She felt the demon gloating.

  *Fear not. If I kill him now, he won’t get what he deserves.*

  “It would be so easy to kill you now, Jaradiel,” her own voice murmured. “But your death won’t taste nearly so sweet as letting you live with the knowledge I have taken your pet Progeny and you failed to stop me.” Aelziroth forced her body to walk away, carefully avoiding the area where the symbol lay hidden beneath the rug.

  Cassie tried to stop, to step inside the symbol, to look back, but she had no control. Inside her head, Aelziroth laughed, amused by her struggles. *Did you think you could trap me so easily?* Aelziroth sneered. *I know all that you know. You have no secrets from me.*

  Something made Cassie suspect he lied, but how could she know?

  *There is nothing you can do,* he told her. *Your body is mine now, and will remain so until it fails. Now, what sensual delights shall I indulge? I’ve had a male’s experience of corporeal pleasures. How does the female’s differ?*

  Jared felt the footsteps on the wooden floor recede from him moving in the direction of the kitchen. He pushed himself to his feet. His ears still rang, but his hearing was starting to return. A big black spot now obscured the center of his vision but was fading around the edges. The flashbang had almost completely incapacitated him, but the Apostate had paused to gloat beside him before leaving. Why didn’t Aelziroth kill me?

  “Cassie!” he yelled, but he couldn’t hear if she replied. Aelziroth had left. There was only one reason the Apostate would depart. He must have completed his mission. Jared’s brain stopped there. He couldn’t contemplate Cassie being dead. He wouldn’t think it. But he had to know.

  He staggered down the hall, his side on fire. He pressed his hand against the pain, and it came away bloody. He hesitated a moment, afraid to look, then turned to the bathroom.

  Blood covered the floor, and for a second Jared’s heart froze. But it wasn’t Cassie who lay on the cold tile. It was the assassin. Relief washed through his body, leaving him weak. She’s not dead. But where is she? “Cassie!” Jared shouted down the hallway again. Had it been her footsteps he’d felt? But only the Apostate could have reacted so fast when he’d tried to grapple him. And why would she run with Aelziroth vanquished?

  Breath whistled in the fallen man’s throat. A patch covered the eye Jared had gouged in the fight in Linda’s house.

  Jared knelt beside him, heedless of the gore soaking his pants, prepared to finish Aelziroth. But when Dave opened his eye, Jared knew the demon had left the other man.

  “It’s over. Thank God, it’s over.” Tears ran down the sides of Dave’s face.

  “Where’s Cassie?” Jared demanded.

  Dave’s mouth twisted with pain, and he sucked in a ragged breath.

  Jared roughly grasped the other man’s chin, trying to get him to meet his eyes. “Where is she?”

  “Crandall won’t stop,” Dave babbled. Jared had to lean close to hear. “That son of a bitch. He did this to me. I’ll kill him.”

  Jared gritted his teeth in frustration. Aelziroth’s possession had damaged Dave’s mind.

  “He wants her dead. She knows something. Too much. He’ll destroy you. Destroy your girl.”

  Jared shook the other man, trying to focus his attention. “Where. Is. She?”

  “Aelziroth took her. Like he took me.”

  Icy horror swept through Jared, stealing his breath. No! He’d feared that. Hadn’t wanted to even think it. The one set of footsteps he’d heard had been both hers and Aelziroth’s. Jared’s heart twisted in his chest. She was trapped inside her body with the Apostate, doing whatever Aelziroth chose to do, suffering whatever he chose to inflict. Jared bowed his head, squeezing his eyes shut, not wanting to think of what the demon could inflict upon her. Aelziroth would delight in torturing her gentle spirit.

  Jared bowed his head under the weight of grief and guilt. He was supposed to keep her safe, and he’d failed. Worse than failed. Aelziroth was loose in the world in a Progeny’s body, and Cassie was at his non-existent mercy.

  He couldn’t just let Aelziroth have her. “Where will he go?” he shouted, clenching the shoulders of Dave’s combat jacket in his fists and shaking him. “Where will he take her?”

  Dave panted, struggling to get enough air. “She’s toast. Aelziroth knows what she is. Knows about…her bloodlines. But you can still…get that bastard Crandall.”

  Jared didn’t care about anyone but Cassie, but he needed to know who all the players were. “Who?”

  “Crandall. The fuck who sent me. He summoned Aelziroth. Gave me to him.”

  Only Fey could control that kind of magic. Crandall is a Fey. “Why?”

  Dave’s eye lost focus. He was going into shock.

  “Dave! Why did Crandall summon Aelziroth?”

  The other man blinked as if trying to concentrate on Jared’s face.

  Jared swore. He was wasting time. But if he was going to have any chance of saving Cassie, he needed information—and Dave was fading fast.

  He put his hand on Dave’s head. The man’s skin was cold and sweaty. Jared concentrated, delving into the other man’s mind, searching for answers. Dave flinched inwardly as Jared made contact, as if expecting the kind of torture Aelziroth had given, but he relaxed as Jared wove the other man’s tattered self-awareness whole again. Dave was merely mortal, and Aelziroth had ridden him for three days. It was a wonder he had a mind left to piece together.

  Dave’s personality began to reassert itself. It wasn’t as easy as talking mind to mind with Cassie. It was all up to Jared to maintain contact with the dying man.

  *Why did Crandall summon Aelziroth?*

  *I guess…he wasn’t happy I missed with the bomb. I saw you rescue the girl. Saw how you moved. So fast.* Dave’s breathing was rapid and shallow. *You’re like him aren’t you? Like Aelziroth.*

  “No!” Jared said, startled into speech. “I’m nothing like him.”

  Dave shook his head, almost frantic. “Not the same,” he rasped. “But you can do things like him.” He grabbed Jared’s shirt with a bloody hand, his one eye pleading. The motion struck Jared’s injured side and he grunted in pain.

  “Can you help me?” Dave gasped.

  Help him? Not bloody likely. Jared grabbed Dave’s wrist to pull his hand away and felt the other man’s heart fluttering. He was close to death.

  The souls of mortals didn’t join the Celestials when they departed the Terrestrial Plane. They went to another place. Jared didn’t know w
hat awaited this man; that justice was reserved to a higher court. But he had tried to kill Cassie, and he’d killed many others during his life as a mercenary. He deserved whatever he got.

  *Why did Crandall want Cassie killed?* Jared demanded, applying his force of will to get the answers he needed.

  *Crandall gets a cut of the opium profits from the Afghani warlords he supports with mercs like me. The woman knows something. She knew about Pankrit. Crandall doesn’t like loose ends. It’s too late for her now. He’s got her.*

  *It’s not too late!* Jared wouldn’t believe that.

  *But you can still get Crandall.*

  The thought had a certain appeal, but Cassie came first. He had to get to Cassie. *Where is Aelziroth taking her?*

  *Help me!* Dave’s breath rattled in his throat. He didn’t have much longer.

  Jared could pull Dave back from the brink. He could heal the damage caused by Aelziroth, stop the bleeding from the shotgun’s blast, but why would he want to? How many people had pleaded with Dave in vain, begging for mercy?

  It verged on unacceptable interference to save a man so close to death. Celestials were supposed to let nature take its course.

  *Please.*

  As Dave slid away, Jared saw deeper into the man’s heart. Dave hadn’t always been a stone killer. He’d done his duty and seen too much and slowly his heart had hardened to the killing. The people in his sights no longer had faces or lives or loved ones. They weren’t people, they were targets. He was good at his job and he liked it. He got his men in and out of their deployments efficiently and alive. He did what he had to do.

  Then Aelziroth had used him. Dave had been less than nothing, riding in his own body like a passenger, taunted, watching the demon pursue his pleasures, tortured when he fought for control.

  Dave didn’t deserve mercy, but he craved it. *I can’t undo my mistakes, but I’d like to do better.*